Smart Home

Can connected car tech boost the CNET Smart Home's IQ?

We hit the open road to see if car tech adds anything to the CNET Smart Home.

1:51 / 24 March 2016

Transcript

[SOUND]
Okay you may be asking wh y are we in a car and what does this have to do with c net smart home.
Well there are ways of integrating your car into your smart home.
So this week we're taking a look at automatic.
This $99 gadget plugs into your car's OBD2 port and can track diagnostic data like miles driven and gas Apps used, and when you finally pull into your garage at the end of a long commute and turn your car off, it'll trigger your lights and adjust your temperature.
[MUSIC]
Automatic even has some integrations with the Amazon Echo, which has become the center of the CNET Smart Home.
Alexa.
Ask automatic, where's my car?
5402 Shepherdsville Road.
Ask automatic how much I drove last week.
You drove 82 miles over 4.0 hours last week.
And that's pretty much it.
Automatic doesn't do much else.
It only sends [UNKNOWN] commands when your ignition goes on or off either forever or only in an area you specify or when the check engine light comes on or off.
It doesn't have geo-sensing so it can't automate the opening of your garage door as you approach your house.
And the echo integrations, while cool, are kind of thin.
So in short, buy Automatic for [UNKNOWN] to track the data from your [UNKNOWN] port, and not for its smart home integrations.
For our part, it's the best option available for getting your car to work with your smart home.
There are other devices like Automatic, but they don't have Alexis skills.
Which is a no-go for us.
So while we aren't thrilled with its Smart Home functionality, Automatic is our pick for a way to integrate a car with the CNET Smart Home.
[MUSIC]

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